DOD Documents Suggest Colonists Were 'Extremist' for Fighting British Rule

23 Aug 2013

Department of Defense (DOD) teaching documents show that DOD educational materials describe conservative groups as “hate groups” and suggest the colonists who fought against British rule were “extremist.”

Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed on April 8, 2013, in an attempt to see what impact the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has on government agencies.

Included in the documents is a Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute “student guide” titled “Extremism.”

The guide defines an extremist as a person “who advocates the use of force or violence, advocates supremacist causes based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, or national origin; or otherwise engages to illegally deprive individuals or groups of their civil rights.”

The SPLC has been clear in describing mainstream conservative groups as “hate groups,” and other resources listed by the DOD guide “[consider] any politically or socially conservative movement to be a potential hate group.”

In discussing “extremist ideologies and movements,” the DOD guide lists “the colonists who sought to free themselves from British rule” as an example.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton reacted to the guide by saying, “The Obama administration has a nasty habit of equating basic conservative values with terrorism. And now, in a document full of claptrap, its Defense Department suggests that the Founding Fathers, and many conservative Americans,” fit the bill as well.